In 10 months, PNP engaged in 13 million activities?

Last Tuesday, Vice President Leni Robredo said that if she becomes the next president, she would abolish the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict), which President Duterte created in December 2018.

She urged that the task force’s proposed 2022 budget be used instead to support health care workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

There are two reasons, she said: The task force would not solve the 50 years-plus insurgency and it could be abused like the administration’s bloody war on drugs – “Tokhang version 2 in the sense that the mandate given the body will be… used to harass people.”

Robredo vowed she would veer away from “militaristic approaches” to ending the insurgency and endeavor to create a “more conducive environment and enabling environment for peace negotiations to resume,” referring to the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations that Duterte unilaterally terminated in 2017.

It turned out that the Senate had slashed the NTF-ELCAC’s proposed P28-billion budget to P4 billion, as recommended by its finance committee, chaired by Sen. Sonny Angara. The P24-billion funding was instead reallocated to the pandemic response.

Angara justified the budget slash at the Senate plenary deliberations last Thursday, by pointing out that only 26 projects have been completed of the 2,318 projects funded under the task force’s P16.4-billion Barangay Development Fund this year. Without arguing against the program, Angara stressed: “But if the implementation is bad, they don’t deserve the funding, especially in a time of national health emergency like COVID-19.”

Presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr. disagreed. “Nakakahinayang na baka mabalewala at masayang lamang ang magandang nasimulan ng ahensya [referring to the NTF-ELCAC]. Batid natin na kailangan ng sapat na pondo para masugpo ang insurgency ng limang dekada na nating nilalabanan.”

He said the country must “prioritize its fight against any government threat and insurgency led by the (CPP-NPA-NDFP),” aside from using government funds to curb COVID-19. His statement clearly puts him at odds with Robredo, who defeated him in the 2016 vice presidential race.

With this development, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) has challenged the other presidential candidates to publicly state how they stand on the NTF-ELCAC funding slash and the resumption of the peace talks.

Robredo’s stance was welcomed by organizations advocating for peace, notably the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP, composed of Catholic, Protestant and independent church leaders) and the Pilgrims for Peace.

In a statement titled, “Defund NTF-ELCAC for Covid-19 Response,” the PEPP said:

“Contrary to its name to end local communist armed conflict, the NTF-ELCAC becomes a hindrance to the promise of peace. (It) is now the critical weapon in the total war against the so-called terrorists. This total war relies on the use of violent means. Consequently, it only increases the violence against human rights and international humanitarian law.”

The task force has become “notorious for its rampant red-tagging,” PEPP said. “It is responsible for vilifying even church organizations, church leaders and members. It is also responsible for the withdrawal of the publications of the NDFP from several state universities, among them being the printed agreements related to the peace talks,” it added.

“For us, the church leaders, the most viable option for a just and lasting peace is to forge a negotiated peace settlement coupled with meaningful social and economic reforms,” the statement said. Principled peace negotiations, it emphasized, also “requires much, much fewer funds and [are] less costly to life and limb.” If followed to the letter, this “would mean more funds for our people mired now in hunger and poverty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.”

At the Senate deliberations on the NTF-ELCAC budget, the following facts have been brought to light, indicating that there’s so much more to this obsession than meets the eye:

• Per the task force’s submitted report for 2021, of the 2,318 “barangay development” projects, 883 are in pre-procurement stage, 841 are in procurement stage and 568 are “ongoing implementation.”

• Of the P460 million allocated to 23 barangays in Davao del Norte, P400 million was given to Panabo City’s 20 barangays. When Senate President Vicente Sotto III asked why, Sen. Angara was quoted as explaining: “It was given to the [Panabo] barangays because hindi talaga kaya ng mga barangay [in the province] yung ganoong klaseng amount [P20 million per barangay]. So it’s either the city or the province who points out the projects and implements [them].”

• During deliberations on the DILG budget, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked how the P1.194-billion NTF-ELCAC fund with the DILG was supposedly spent for “meetings, convergence and other purposes.” As budget sponsor, Sen. Angara replied that PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar had told him the PNP spent P766 million for “13 million activities,” supposedly carried out during the past 10 months of this year.

Reportedly stunned, Drilon remarked in Filipino: “Dalawampu’t apat na taon na po ako sa Senado, ngayon ko lang narinig ang report na merong ginastusan na 13 milyong activities in a span of one year, or less than one year.”

Angara then explained: “The 13 million activities were meant to orient [insurgency]-cleared barangays about how they would continue progress, which requires DILG and PNP personnel to do several meetings with local government units, local officials and other national agencies.”

“Broadly,” Angara continued, “it’s to win hearts and minds of the communities, the cleared barangays… for the DILG they went around… they visited the barangays which were to be covered under the 2022 appropriation – the 1,406 LGUs. They would spend time there, the DILG teams, with the community.” They would have community meetings and “convergence” meetings with local officials and national government agencies.

The DILG teams, he pointed out, would assist the barangays in deciding which projects to avail of, although it’s the barangays who would make the final decision.

Now, will somebody make a detailed report on how P766 million was spent for these supposedly 13 million activities?

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